In the wake of the New Zealand mosque massacre, some American Muslims believe they should arm themselves to better protect their communities. Vice founder Suroosh Alvi embeds with Muslim activist Hassan Shibley as he urges his Florida community to not fear this type of white nationalism, but to fight back.

This is a city of around 140,000 people nestled between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. On Tuesday, the city held municipal elections — incumbent mayor Wayne Messam, a Democrat, cruised to a second term. Votes cast totaled around 6,795, and as expected Messam won around 86% of them.

Messam is a first generation American a former Florida State University wide receiver. He almost went to the NFL but he didn’t make the cut. So he came home and started a successful construction business. At 44, he’s Miramar’s first black mayor. He celebrated his second term with a 4-mile run in the early morning hours of Wednesday with his regular running group.

A few hours later, he filed the necessary paperwork to launch an exploratory committee to pursue becoming the next president of the United States.

It’s crazy, but it’s not that crazy. Messam’s team sees a pathway for a young, black progressive southerner after the surprising rise of candidates like Andrew Gillum in Florida and Stacey Abrams in Georgia. South Carolina is the third stop on the Democratic nomination calendar, and Messam supporters say a strong early showing could make him a contender there.

But there’s not much time. The first Democratic primary debate is in June, and to make the stage candidates need to create a grassroots fundraising army or start showing results in national polls. Messam starts both efforts from basically zero. But he says he’s making this run for all the right reasons.

Mixed martial artist and boxer Conor McGregor has been arrested in South Florida for allegedly stealing the cellphone of someone who was trying to take his photo, authorities said. An attorney said McGregor would cooperate with authorities. (March 12)

GONZO reaches the end of their journey in the swampland in which America’s oldest continuous settlement resides – St. Augustine, Florida. Max and Stacy talk to a historian who tells them that much of ‘history’ is, in fact, the history of selling history. History, at least how it is taught at school, is often spun to put ourselves in the best light and so much of it is myth, or advertisement, rather than fact. But is erasing the negative truths about our history through tearing down monuments, for example, the best way to address the horrible things we have done as a nation? Or is providing context to historical texts, documents, buildings, and monuments a better idea? Confronting our history straight on and examining the consequences.

Max and Stacy also talk to a federal agent who says we need more dialogue over our shared history, no matter how bad it is, as a way to move forward rather than continuing to be stuck in the same partisan spot. Finally, Max and Stacy visit an alligator pit to understand the nature of the swamp that is at the heart of Trump’s America and the people, like Florida Man, who jump into that pit. The journey concludes with Max and Stacy chatting to ‘Hunter,’ a 2500-pound gator.

A fired Florida police officer was found guilty of manslaughter and attempted murder Thursday for the fatal 2015 shooting of a stranded black motorist, becoming the first officer in the state to be convicted of an on-duty shooting in 30 years. (March 7)

SpaceX’s new Dragon capsule successfully docks on the International Space Station. The docking began at 1051 GMT, more than 248 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface, north of New Zealand — and 27 hours after the capsule’s launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida. IMAGES of the capsule docking on ISS

GONZO remains in New Orleans and continues chowing down on beignets with journalist, Max Blumenthal, who says that while Donald Trump has, indeed, energized ‘the basket of deplorables,’ his campaign slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ won the election because Hillary did represent the ‘winners’ of globalization post-Nafta and he had intentionally appealed to the ‘losers’ in places like Michigan. They also discuss the proliferation of conspiracy theories as unsurprising when the ordinary people of America are some of the most conspired against people in the world, including, for example, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment on African-American males from 1932 until 1972.

As they reminisce about the GONZO journey encountering ghosts on the trail, Blumenthal notes that Donald Trump is the perfect American ghost who brings all the dark ghosts of our past into one orange skinned, dead fox haired character who has so much energy it’s as if he’s powered by fish filets.

Later in the day, Max visits Dr. Clyde Robertson, director of African and African-American Studies at Southern University in New Orleans, to discuss the problem with our racist past that is not even past. Racism still haunts society and politics today as the nation went from slavery to Jim Crow to the prison industrial complex. They discuss the history of the Black Panthers in the area and the gentrification of the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Robertson also mentions that Barack Obama did not deliver a post-racial society as he kowtowed to special corporate interests instead. Finally, Max and Stacy head out toward Florida, passing through rain storms in Alabama and Mississippi.